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Calls on Calvert to Give $20,725 Received in Oil Industry Contributions to Small Businesses in Gulf Region

Bill Hedrick

RIVERSIDE, CA â€“ Democratic Congressional candidate Bill Hedrick today admonished his opponent, Republican Ken Calvert, for $16,725 in campaign contributions received from the oil industry this election cycle and for a $4000 contribution received from BP apologist Joe Bartonâ€™s PAC.

Hedrick has begun circulating a petition that he will personally deliver to Calvert, asking supporters to join him in calling on Ken Calvert to redeem himself to the American people by donating the $20,725 of oil and gas industry money to a group working to assist small businesse and communities damaged by the oil spill.Â Â

â€œKen Calvert is an oil industry favorite.Â He has received more money from the oil and gas industries than any other current member of Congress in California.Â Heâ€™s the Joe Barton of California!Â He’s been a champion for Big Oil in Congress, and as a result of his policies of less oversight and less accountability, we’ve got a mess.Â When I was a first grade teacher, I always told my students â€˜If you make a mess, you clean it up.â€™Â Ken Calvert should do his small part to help clean it up.Â Calvert should take his oily money, do the right thing and return it to the people in the Gulf Coast that have been hurt by his loyalty to Big Oil.â€Â

Bill Hedrick has been a public school teacher for 35 years and, as a member of the Corona-Norco Board of Education, has helped lead Californiaâ€™s 8th largest school district for 22 years, improving the education of 53,000 children.Â With a grassroots campaign and no national support, Bill came within less than two percentage points of unseating 16-year incumbent Rep. Ken Calvert in 2008.Â Bill is running again to fight wasteful spending and corruption and to bring real leadership â€“ leadership we can trust â€“ to the people of Californiaâ€™s 44th Congressional District.Â

I hope your admonition of Mr.Calvert will be followed by the same for Mr.Obama as he was reported by factcheck.com to have received in excess of $213,000 in campaign contributions from all of the large oil companies, including BP. So if your going to make this an issue with Mr.Calvert, then be honest enough to point out that even the president has oil money in his pockets.